Newsom orders state workers back into the office

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom is setting a government-wide requirement that state employees work from the office two days a week starting in June, according to a memo his cabinet secretary sent to top state officials on Wednesday and shared exclusively with POLITICO.

State employees will have to return to the office June 17, according to the memo from Cabinet Secretary Ann Patterson. Workers will be eligible for case-by-case exceptions based on individual circumstances and departments’ needs, she said in the memo.

Why it matters: The directive is a significant policy shift for the administration, which from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has allowed leaders of the state’s roughly 150 agencies, departments and offices to set their own remote work policies for the state’s 240,000 workers.

That approach led to varying rules from one agency to the next even for similar classifications of white-collar workers, with some agencies allowing full-time remote work.

“Unfortunately, the varied approaches have created confusion around expectations and are likely to exacerbate inconsistencies across agencies and departments,” Patterson said in the memo.

She cited “enhanced collaboration, cohesion, and communication, better opportunities for mentorship, particularly for workers newer to the workforce, and improved supervision and accountability” as benefits of returning to the office.

Background: Newsom embraced remote work early in the pandemic, and his administration has promoted its benefits, even launching a data dashboard (taken down March 29) that listed miles saved and associated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Cubicles in some offices got smaller, and employees gave up coveted long-term parking spots.

Roughly half of state employees had to report to work in-person throughout the pandemic, Patterson said in the memo, including prison employees, janitors, groundskeepers and others.

Others, like the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, started bringing employees back at least as early as 2022, when it required them to report to the office three days per week. Other big departments, including the Department of Public Health and all those within the Natural Resources Agency have been adding in-office requirements this year, the Sacramento Bee has reported.

Among the administration’s early concerns was staying competitive with the private sector on remote work. But now much of the private sector is migrating back to offices as well.

Powerful state worker unions have fought rigid return-to-office requirements, raising concerns about health risks and making the case that many workers are at least as productive working from home.

But the administration has also faced pressure to return employees to offices, including calls from Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg to return workers downtown to boost the local economy.

Officials in other states have taken varying approaches to return-to-office policies.

Under New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, state agencies have the ability to develop their own policies around remote work, though most require employees to be in the office for some portion of the week. New York City Mayor Eric Adams required municipal employees to be back at their desks five days a week in June 2022. He relaxed the policy months later because of high vacancy rates in the workforce.

What’s next: Patterson said the state Human Resources Department would notify the unions of the change.

Christopher Cadelago and Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.